Juwara Hits At Charles Sam Says He's a Hypocrite The Independent November 16, 2001 Posted to the web November 16, 2001 Lamin Dibba Banjul, the Gambia The organising secretary of the United Democratic Party Lamin Waa Juwara has described as shocking The Daily Observer's description as realistic, Mr. Charles Sam's views on the way forward for The Gambia. In a chat with The Independent recently Juwara said that "we have lived the spirit and letter of the National Anthem up to the 22 July 1994, when a new dispensation was introduced into our body politics". He said Mr. Sam could not help but agree with him that Ghana, Sam's country while under the leadership of J.J. Rawlings facilitated the deviation from peace, freedom and justice in the continent. He asserted that The Gambia before 1994 was a haven of peace and a place of truth, and that if today The Gambia is what Mr. Sam believes it to be then the ruling APRC should be blamed. "We have just gone through a presidential election and it is absolutely clear to all and sundry that it was not a national election but sub-regional election because even the chairman of the IEC cannot tell us the number of registered voters." He suggested that Mr. Sam should have taken the initiative to put the blame where it belongs because there is no point castigating the moral standing of a whole nation that has been taken hostage by a few self-centred people who never worked for the common good of all. "Mr. Sam will agree with me that Ghana by accident has had its bad sons at the helm of affairs and it will be unjustifiable for anybody to blame Ghanaians for the moral decay that they found themselves during the period of military rule" he charged. He said that Ghana was nobody's envy under Akuffour, Affrari and Kotokas but the bedrock of Ghanaian society was still alive. He also said that Ghana under its founding fathers was the envy of Africa because Kwame Nkrumah was a new breed African. "He was a Pan-Africanist and it is the self centred army officers that brought to an end that bright and resourceful history of Ghana and we are experiencing here a carbon copy of what happened in Ghana", said Juwara. He advised Charles Sam to be honest enough to share Ghana's experience under its successive military regimes that reduced the country to poverty, insecurity and an abyss of human rights abuses in the continent. "Mr. Sam is a dishonest intellectual who believes that Africa should sink while they survive. How can slaves and their masters reconcile? How can we so dispossessed of power be able to appoint our village headmen and district headchiefs?" questioned Juwara. He challenged Sam to tell Gambians about who appoints paramount chiefs in Ghana, saying that Sam was so dishonest to call on the Jammeh administration, the opposition, the security agencies, the business community, the civil service and the media to end hostilities and be patriotic enough to iron out their differences with each other to move the country forward." He likened it to calling on Gambians to accept being enslaved as patriotism and reconciliation. "We will continue to pray for the peace, progress and prosperity of our nation but we will never abdicate our rights as human beings in the name of patriotism and reconciliation" Juwara concluded. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>